Age and gender differences in narcissism have been studied often. However, considering the rich history of narcissism research accompanied by its diverging conceptualizations, little is known about age and gender differences across various narcissism measures. The present study investigated age and gender differences and their interactions across eight widely used narcissism instruments (i.e., Narcissistic Personality Inventory, Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, Dirty Dozen, Psychological Entitlement Scale, Narcissistic Personality Disorder Symptoms from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Version IV, Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire-Short Form, Single-Item Narcissism Scale, and brief version of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory). The findings of Study 1 (N = 5,736) revealed heterogeneity in how strongly the measures are correlated. Some instruments loaded clearly on one of the three factors proposed by previous research (i.e., Neuroticism, Extraversion, Antagonism), while others cross-loaded across factors and in distinct ways. Cross-sectional analyses using each measure and meta-analytic results across all measures (Study 2) with a total sample of 270,029 participants suggest consistent linear age effects (random effects meta-analytic effect of r = -.104), with narcissism being highest in young adulthood. Consistent gender differences also emerged (random effects meta-analytic effect was -.079), such that men scored higher in narcissism than women. Quadratic age effects and Age × Gender effects were generally very small and inconsistent. We conclude that despite the various conceptualizations of narcissism, age and gender differences are generalizable across the eight measures used in the present study. However, their size varied based on the instrument used. We discuss the sources of this heterogeneity and the potential mechanisms for age and gender differences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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自恋的年龄和性别差异：一项涵盖八项指标和超过 250,000 名参与者的综合研究。


人们经常研究自恋的年龄和性别差异。然而，考虑到自恋研究的丰富历史及其不同的概念化，人们对各种自恋测量的年龄和性别差异知之甚少。本研究调查了八种广泛使用的自恋工具的年龄​​和性别差异及其相互作用（即自恋人格量表、超敏感自恋量表、肮脏的一打、心理权利量表、精神障碍诊断和统计手册中的自恋人格障碍症状、版本IV，自恋钦佩与竞争问卷-简式，单项自恋量表，以及病理性自恋量表的简要版本）。研究 1 (N = 5,736) 的结果揭示了测量相关程度的异质性。一些工具明确加载了先前研究提出的三个因素之一（即神经质、外向性、对抗性），而其他工具则以不同的方式跨因素交叉加载。使用每项措施和所有措施的荟萃分析结果进行的横断面分析（研究 2），总样本为 270,029 名参与者，表明存在一致的线性年龄效应（随机效应荟萃分析效应 r = -.104），其中自恋程度最高在年轻的成年时期。一致的性别差异也出现了（随机效应荟萃分析效果为-.079），因此男性自恋得分高于女性。二次年龄效应和年龄×性别效应通常非常小且不一致。我们的结论是，尽管自恋的概念多种多样，但年龄和性别差异在本研究中使用的八项指标中是普遍存在的。 然而，它们的大小根据所使用的仪器而有所不同。我们讨论了这种异质性的来源以及年龄和性别差异的潜在机制。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2023 APA，保留所有权利）。